This invention relates to a compact disk duplication system and in particular to a new transport mechanism in a disk duplication system for increasing the number of compact disks or CDs that can be copied by a set of disk drives. The transport mechanism is incorporated into a robotic, self-operating compact disk duplication system of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,612, issued Mar. 27, 2001.
In the referenced patent, multiple disk storage spindles are vertically arranged in a compact disk duplication system having a transport mechanism with a disk transport arm on a vertically traveling transport belt. The limited vertical travel of the disk transport mechanism requires that the disk storage spindles and access trays of the disk drives be extended into the path of travel of the transport arm to allow a disk capture mechanism on the arm to engage or release a compact disk to or from the spindle or tray. Additionally, when the system includes a printer, a similar procedure is performed to seat or retrieve a compact disk from an extended tray of the printer.
The disk duplication system of the referenced patent permits the system to be incorporated into a compact unit with a small footprint. However, because of the limitations in travel of the transport mechanism, and the use of stacked disk storage spindles, the system is limited in capacity and is not easily expanded without inconvenience to the user in accessing the disk storage spindles.
The unique multiple-dimension, transport mechanism in this invention permits a disk duplication system to be expanded in its disk handling capacity with minimal change in design or operation. The disk transport mechanism permits a disk capture device to be transported in an X, Y and Z direction providing a greatly expanded capability. Multiple disk storage spindles or other disk containment structures for storing stacked compact disks at storage stations can be arranged side by side in a series providing four or more storage stations. The disk storage spindles and other components of the disk duplication system are readily accessible to the user.
These and other features of the disk transport mechanism and disk duplication are described herein.
The compact disk duplication system of this invention has multiple disk drives for rapid automatic duplication of multiple disks and incorporates a unique disk transport mechanism. The disk duplication system using the multiple-dimension, transport mechanism featured in this invention is designed to optionally include a disk label printer and is also designed to duplicate circular, oval, rectangular or other configurations of compact disks.
The compact disk transport mechanism includes embedded software as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,612, the description of which is incorporated herein by reference. The embedded software is modified in the transport commands to accommodate the horizontal rather than vertical overall arrangement of the disk storage stations. Although the disk transport mechanism of this invention can be used with only two disk storage stations, for example, an input station and an output station, alternate means must be provided for rejected disks, such as a discard chute. Typically, for optimized use of the multiple-dimension, transport mechanism of this invention, three and preferably four disk storage stations are utilized with an input station for a stack of uncopied disks, an output station for a stack of copied disks, a discard station for rejected disks, and a holding station for temporary storage of disks. The holding station provides a temporary location for parked disks which is particularly useful when the timing of a printing operation does not exactly match the timing of a disk copying operation.
When adding additional input and output stations to a disk duplication system, a transport mechanism must be capable of depositing or retrieving a disk from the top of a stack and moving from any one of multiple stacked disk drives to any one of the storage stations. The addition of one or more printers further expands the possible paths of travel. To resolve the complexities in a disk duplication system having a variety of options and configurations, the multiple-dimension, or XYZ, transport mechanism in this invented system was devised. The XYZ transport mechanism moves a mechanical or pneumatic disk pickup device in a fore and aft, side to side, and up and down displacement to pick and place compact disks at the programmed location in the defined sequence of operations.
It is to be understood that the term compact disk includes different types of disks including CDR disks, eraseable CD disks, DVD disks and other recordable disks of different sizes and shapes including rounded-rectangular disks and oblong disks popular as business and information cards, and miniature disks.